Following People Is Wrong

3 Brothers and sisters, in the past I could not talk to you as I talk to spiritual people. I had to talk to you as I would to people without the Spirit—babies in Christ. ² The teaching I gave you was like milk, not solid food, because you were not able to take solid food. And even now you are not ready. ³ You are still not spiritual, because there is jealousy and quarreling among you, and this shows that you are not spiritual. You are acting like people of the world. ⁴ One of you says, “I belong to Paul,” and another says, “I belong to Apollos.” When you say things like this, you are acting like people of the world.

⁵ Is Apollos important? No! Is Paul important? No! We are only servants of God who helped you believe. Each one of us did the work God gave us to do. ⁶ I planted the seed, and Apollos watered it. But God is the One who made it grow. ⁷ So the one who plants is not important, and the one who waters is not important. Only God, who makes things grow, is important. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters have the same purpose, and each will be rewarded for his own work. ⁹ We are God’s workers, working together; you are like God’s farm, God’s house.

¹⁰ Using the gift God gave me, I laid the foundation of that house like an expert builder. Others are building on that foundation, but all people should be careful how they build on it. ¹¹ The foundation that has already been laid is Jesus Christ, and no one can lay down any other foundation. ¹² But if people build on that foundation, using gold, silver, jewels, wood, grass, or straw, ¹³ their work will be clearly seen, because the Day of Judgment^[a] will make it visible. That Day will appear with fire, and the fire will test everyone’s work to show what sort of work it was. ¹⁴ If the building that has been put on the foundation still stands, the builder will get a reward. ¹⁵ But if the building is burned up, the builder will suffer loss. The builder will be saved, but it will be as one who escaped from a fire.

¹⁶ Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person, because God’s temple is holy and you are that temple.

¹⁸ Do not fool yourselves. If you think you are wise in this world, you should become a fool so that you can become truly wise, ¹⁹ because the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. It is written in the Scriptures, “He catches those who are wise in their own clever traps.”^{[b] 20} It is also written in the Scriptures, “The Lord knows what wise people think. He knows their thoughts are just a puff of wind.”^{[c] 21} So you should not brag about human leaders. All things belong to you: ²² Paul, Apollos, and Peter; the world, life, death, the present, and the future—all these belong to you. ²³ And you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.